Every week, I talk to a bunch of writers and we inevitably talk about writing. We travel between topics, but one thing that comes up over and over again is if an idea is worth writing. Is it marketable? Has this been overdone? Did someone else already do this better? Will anyone even want to read this?

So I’m going to tell you like I’ve told them.

Don’t worry so much. You haven’t even written it yet. Stop telling yourself why it’s not going to work and just give it a shot.

You’ll be okay.

Really.

You want to write a story about how love and friendship turns into rainbows that save the day? Just do it. Vampire love story? Have a blast! A story about the chosen boy at a magical school defeating a dark lord? That could be a lot of fun! Get mad at the Marvel fanboys over their reaction to Disney buying them out? Add in fridges getting thrown about and that could be a whole series!

But what if no one reads it? It’s been done! It won’t sell! There’s no way it will be any good! There’s no point!

Try it anyway.

You’ll have fun. You’ll learn things. And even if it’s not going to work, you might be able to take parts of it and use it elsewhere.

Just write it. Sit down and try to get a few words of it on the page and see if the story makes you feel excited. If just writing it isn’t really your style (Looking at you, my other plotter people out there) then plot it. Play around with the idea and see if the story works. Talk to people and talk through the story to see if they get as excited about the idea as you do. Don’t give up on the idea so quickly. If it’s not hurting anyone, you might as well give it a shot.

You might have something amazing on your hands. You won’t know if you give up on it before you start working through the story and seeing what it could be. If it doesn’t work, you might still be able to use parts of it in another project.

As for if it’s going to be any good, well, that’s what editing is for.